Whately Eliot - born in County Sligo - was a dock and harbour engineer. In 1874, he travelled to New Zealand as a representative of Sir John Coode - another eminent British engineer. The local council wanted to find out if it was feasible to construct a harbour in Timaru.

Thirty three years old and four years before his marriage to Jessy Dingwall Fordice, Whatley Eliot stopped over in Gibraltar and left us several sketches of Gibraltar. Several of these are shown below.